PERENNIALS > PHORMIUM > PRUNING

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PHORMIUM GUIDES

the long thin varigeated green and white leaves from a phormium plant growing outdoors

Common ProblemsContainer GrowingDivisionPruning

Phormiums are interesting and spectacular foliage plants that can figure out well in many UK garden .

They can be grow in the ground in an sphere of Sunday or fond shade with destitute - draining soil , but are popular for container growing in the UK .

phormium shrubs with green and white leaves growing from soil in the ground on an outside lawn

Typically H4 brave , they may ask some winter protection in many parts of the UK , but are loosely relatively easy , low - sustainment and trouble - liberal plants to grow .

Phormiums do n’t really need to be prune at all .

However , it is in the main a good mind to give them a light tidy - up in the spring :

phormium plant with long thin green leaves that are turning brown around the edges growing outdoors next to a road

When To Prune

The ripe prison term for a tidy - up is spring .

You might not involve to do this every year , but each year , once spring come and when the conditions is fine , give your plants the once over to see how they have fare over the winter month .

bet for any idle leaves and any leaves which have become damaged during wintertime storms , or due to winter Robert Frost .

overgrown phormium plant with thin green and white leaves growing outdoors in a large stone container

1) Remove Damaged Leaves

If you make out any leaves that attend unhealthy , damaged or dead , simply rend these off , or cut them off as close to the root word as potential .

Occasionally , you may find that a plant has been severely damaged , most commonly by frost .

Unfortunately , plants that have been severely frost - damaged wo n’t always reclaim , but it is worth a attempt to remove all the deadened and damaged leaves and take skilful care of your plants .

Over the next few weeks , novel growth may well emerge and your plant life may begin to return to full health .

2) Cut Spent Flowers

If your plant flowered the late year , there may also be flowering stems to remove .

These too you should cut off as low as possible , taking care not to do any damage to healthy surrounding leaf .

“ For largePhormium tenax , the flower stalk can be 2 - 3 m in height and quite thick at the infrastructure , ” says Master Horticulturist Colin Skelly .

“ To remove these you will need some pruner or a hand run into . They do break down relatively cursorily in a compost heap but cut into short sections for relief of direction . ”

3) Divide Large Plants

Pruning is not the way to trim back a phormium in size .

If you have a Phormium that has grown too large for its emplacement in the garden or is getting too big for its container , then you might enquire how to reduce it in sizing .

pot up may no longer be practical .

If so , you could divide the flora .

The division will allow you to obtain several little plant from one larger one and it will reduce congestion and prevent overcrowding in your garden , helping the health of the original plant as well as propagating more .

As you may assure from the above , pruning is not really something to worry about when develop Phormium in your garden , but do stay on top of the tidy - up to keep thing looking good .